Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to provide a contribution to this MPI. I actually welcome the opportunity to provide some history on this program, some completeness about the rationale for this program, and to fill some gaps that have existed, certainly in the last couple of weeks and in the last few days, in the emotive tirade of Senator Scullion. It provides an opportunity to put some facts and history on the table about this. I want to try and bring back the Indigenous housing issue that confronts all of us in this country in what we had hoped would be an unemotive but bipartisan way, but obviously that is not the way Senator Scullion wants to play it.

SIHIP stands for Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program—and I clearly want to emphasise ‘infrastructure’. This is not just about housing; this is also about infrastructure. It is a jointly funded program between the Northern Territory government and the Australian government which was instigated under the Howard government in 2007. So this is a program that is the making of the previous federal government. It has been progressively rolling out new and upgraded service land and related infrastructure, as well as new, replacement and upgraded housing in communities across the Northern Territory. It has a budget of $700 million, which will be spent over five years. It is one of the largest investments in Indigenous housing to be made by a government. SIHIP is about much more than building houses. It is also about creating healthy homes, real training and job opportunities for local residents.

There are some fundamental differences between what has been done in the past and what we want to achieve under this program. The SIHIP vision is to provide Indigenous Australians with adequate, appropriate and sustainable housing, whilst creating opportunity for employment and workforce development in Indigenous communities. So SIHIP is different from every other housing program that has been delivered. That is the cornerstone of this program and is the very essence of what Senator Scullion has failed to grasp—in fact, does not want to grasp. This program is fundamentally different and I am going to spend my time outlining why that is the case.

Under this program we will work closely with communities to build homes that will work for them, unlike in the past. Those homes will be safe and robust and are designed to last for decades, not just years. They will be well designed and they will link construction to the delivery of real training and unemployment opportunities for locals.